It was neither a deplorable separatist nor a quixotic black block demonstrator, but Pedro Sánchez himself, the Spanish Primer Minister, who confirmed on Wednesday that there is an unsanctioned patriotic police unit operating in Spain. In other words, police officers who persecute political views that the Spanish state finds objectionable, as well as anyone who supports, represents or espouses them.
Until now the existence of such a police unit —one whose activities are clearly at odds with the spirit and the basic meaning of democracy— had been emphatically denied time after time by political leaders and Spain’s law enforcement top brass. The fact that the Spanish Prime Minister has now admitted otherwise in a parliamentary session —he accused the PP and Vox of attacking interior minister Grande-Marlaska because he was working “to expose the patriotic police”— should have far-reaching consequences, starting with the high command of the Guardia Civil and National Police force. High-ranking officials in the interior ministry itself and the judiciary should be held to account, as well as the political parties that worked hand in hand with the “patriotic police” and might have even set up and funded it from within public institutions using taxpayers’ money.
This concerns mainly the Partido Popular and, in particular, former ministers Jorge Fernández Díaz and José Ignacio Zoido, even though the tentacles of such a scandal spread deep inside and high up the power structures in Spain, both in the public and private spheres. A damning documentary film like Les clavegueres d’Interior [“The Interior Ministry’s Black Ops”], which I have mentioned before and they have tried to suppress for lack of a rebuttal, and the reports we get from time to time about the ever-present Villarejo (1), sometimes straight from the horse’s mouth, might provide a rough idea of the magnitude of this tragedy. But that is merely circumstantial evidence or a starting point in comparison to what would be really needed: an in-depth investigation and legal action with the guarantees that both would be conducted rigorously and independently.
Spain’s “patriotic police” has been waging a dirty war by mainly fabricating evidence and writing fake reports against the enemies of Spain’s unity: namely, Catalonia’s separatist leaders and Unidas-Podemos. Catalan leaders Rull, Turull, Bassa, Forcadell, Romeva, Junqueras, Forn, Sànchez and Cuixart were convicted and are serving long prison sentences based on false evidence and fake reports. The trouble is that now the “patriotic police” regards the very government of Spain as an enemy of the country’s unity. This includes not only Unidas-Podemos, but also the PSOE (at least Pedro Sánchez’s PSOE). This is the famous struggle between the government and the State where, by the way, the phrase “indivisible Spain” translates nicely into large sums of cash.
__________
Translator’s note:
(1) Upon retiring from the Spanish police force, superintendent José Manuel Villarejo started a private security outfit which allegedly used police intelligence and illegal means to blackmail prominent figures in business, finance, politics and high society, eventually leading to his conviction.
